Brighten Up My Day
by Boisterous Hal
Summary: Nathan spends one morning feeling bored. Claire steps in to brighten up his day. A semi-serious, semi-crack fan fic, which is better than what this summary would have you believe.


Summary: Nathan spends one morning feeling bored. Claire steps in to brighten up his day. A semi-serious, semi-crack fan fic, which is better than what this summary would have you believe.

Disclaimer: I do not own Heroes, United States of Tara, Muriel's Wedding, Midtown Madness nor the Nintendo DS and Brain Training trademarks. If I did own Heroes, it would be destined to end up with story lines like this story (if you end up reading the story, you might wonder what the story line actually was). That would not be very desirable now, would it?

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**Brighten Up My Day**

Senator Nathan Petrelli's Office

Manhattan, New York

Nathan sat behind his expansive desk, which was covered with his daily mail. To clarify, the envelopes were spread across his desk. If the envelopes were spread across Nathan's lap, rather than the desk, that would defeat the purpose of having a desk in his office.

He opened the first envelope, which was marked 'Card Only'. It contained a Christmas card, from his Uncle Pascal. Nathan raised an eyebrow. He thought it was early August, too soon in the year to be sending Christmas cards. A glance at his desk calendar confirmed that it was indeed near the start of August. For those of you born yesterday, August is the month which precedes September and follows July.

Nathan opened the card, and read his uncle's rather messy handwriting. It said "Helo Nathen. Merri Christmsa. From Uncle Pascal. 2003." Nathan blinked. It was the year 2006. Uncle Pascal certainly was getting forgetful, if he couldn't even remember what year it was. He had lost his memory quite a while back, and Nathan had wished that his uncle might get it back somehow. Obviously, the wish didn't go very far. Uncle Pascal was dyslexic too, as you might have guessed. It was a wonder that he had written the correct address on the envelope.

Nathan made a mental note to send Uncle Pascal a Christmas card. He added this rather mundane task to the end of the thousand-and-ten other mundane things that he had to do. Up the top of his list, was the rather difficult task of surviving this boring morning which he had unhelpfully woken up in. He should have just stayed in bed instead, to dream about The Jellyfish of Gemini Sands playing tennis against the Woeful Walruses of Wobble-Upon-The-Island. The aforementioned Walruses were fierce competitors, and their backhand volleys were admired throughout the land. However, the Jellyfish had begun to match them in skill, in part due to the increased shot making power allowed by their newly purchased Macro Biotic TX-9000 racquets.

Half of the envelopes had 'Card Only' written on them. Nathan opened these up first, and they all contained Christmas cards from relatives and friends he had long forgotten. What were the chances that 10 Christmas cards would land on his desk on the same day, so early before 25 December? Nathan didn't ponder this too long, and he got distracted by a rather shiny object in the corner of his office, which meant that he lost his train of thought. The shiny object was in fact a Miniature Magic Box, which would answer important questions, such as "What is the meaning of life?" and "When will news about Lindsay Lohan and Amy Winehouse disappear from tabloid publications?" The answer to the latter would hopefully be "soon".

"How lovely it is to receive Christmas cards from people who I faintly remember, or don't remember at all," Nathan said to the pot plant, situated in another corner of the room. While he said this, Nathan thought the exact opposite. He made a mental note to mail Christmas cards to these people-whom-he-could-care-less-about.

Of the remaining envelopes, half advertised holidays to exotic locations such as Barbados and New Caledonia. He placed these advertisements to one side of the desk. He should take a holiday, and get off the monotonous track he was stuck on. The other half of the remaining envelopes were complaint letters from concerned citizens, highlighting how New York was becoming unfriendly and suggested ways to improve the city's image. The people who wrote these complaint letters were part of the reason why New York had become undesirable, but those people had their heads stuck so far up their - well, you get the idea - that they failed to notice this rather important fact.

Nathan buzzed his secretary.

"Linda, could you please come and see me for a minute?"

"Of course, Senator."

A few seconds later, Linda Collette-Peppershaker entered Nathan's office. The "Collette" part of her surname was given to her by her mother, who originated from the country known today as the United States of Tara. Baby Boomers will remember that that country used to be called Muriel's Wedding. "Peppershaker" was given to her by her father, who was born in the Homewares section of a popular department store. As a pointless piece of trivia, the town of Peppershaker (in the country of Kitchen Spices and the Anchovies) is not a town which prides itself on manufacturing high quality pepper shakers, contrary to popular belief. In fact, it prides itself on manufacturing wallpaper for small and large homes alike.

Linda was five foot and seven inches tall, 26 years old, with long, straight black hair. She was quite the looker, and Nathan thought she had some resemblance to the actress Sandrine Holt. She also had the brains to go with her looks. Yes, she was very good at her job. Nathan directed his eyes at her face, rather than lower down, which was an achievement for him.

"Linda, look at all these Christmas cards, from people whom I could care less about."

"Oh," Linda answered, as she inspected the cards. "It's quite early in the year to be sending these."

"My sentiment exactly."

"Would you like me to send them back, Senator?"

"No, no. That won't be necessary. I just wanted to vent to someone."

"Well, I suppose receiving greeting cards from people-you-could-care-less-about is vent-worthy, sir." She smiled, and Nathan returned it.

"Before you get back to whatever it was you were doing before I so rudely interrupted you, I'd like to say that you look very pretty today."

"Why, thank you. I do my best," Linda beamed. "If I may say so, you look delicious in your own right."

With that intriguing statement hanging in the air, she turned around and exited the room. Nathan actually blushed. He had been described by so many adjectives before, but 'delicious' was not one of them.

Linda thought that Nathan was a bit peculiar, but he was a good boss and very easy on the eye (not that she ever admitted this to her boyfriend, of course).

Nathan struggled to find anything interesting to do. He read the newspaper, cut and filed his fingernails, and stared out the window. He logged into Twitter, and wrote 'Help! So bored - rescue me, please." Claire Bennet replied a few minutes later with 'Don't worry, Daddy. I'll be over for lunch in an hour."

Nathan smiled. His daughter was on school holidays, and Noah had allowed her to visit New York to spend quality time with her biological father.

Nathan took out his Nintendo DS and played Brain Training until Claire arrived.

Linda buzzed him. "Senator, your daughter is here for lunch."

"Oh, goody. Send her in please, Linda."

Claire entered the room with her usual grace. Nathan grinned warmly at his favourite daughter. Well, she was his _only_ daughter, but that was besides the point. He stood up and embraced her.

"So, how was your morning?" Nathan asked.

"Oh, it was great. Peter and I went shopping at the Midtown Madness Mall. We bought clothes, shoes and accessories. It was so much fun!" Claire dropped her smile. "I'm sorry that you were bored."

"It's okay," Nathan replied, brushing all thoughts about his morning aside. "You're here, to brighten up my day."

Claire smiled, again. "Are you okay with Mexican for lunch?"

"Yeah, Mexican sounds perfect."

They skedaddled out of the office, to their favourite Mexican restaurant.

*****

After enjoying their meal, they walked around Central Park for a bit, genuinely enjoying each other's company. After their walk, Nathan had a special treat for Claire. He took her flying. Over the rooftops they flew, through the clouds in an endless, azure sky. Claire laughed and cheered as she saw the Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, Central Park and other landmarks from a view she had never experienced before. Once they landed, Claire cuddled Nathan.

"That was so much cooler than a helicopter trip. I love you, Daddy."

"I love you too, sweetheart. I forgot to ask, would your other Dad have minded me flying you around like that?"

"Oh," Claire said, waving her hand dismissively. "What he doesn't know can't hurt him. Besides, you could have dropped me and I would have been okay."

"I know. You're my sweet, indestructible angel."

"You're my wonderful, fun loving Dad. Not that my other Dad isn't wonderful and fun loving."

"Of course."

They both smiled and laughed, walking hand in hand as the sun began to set.

THE END

**Linda and Nathan, sitting in the tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. *I realise that the story has ended.* Er, um, I promised myself that I would be nice to Claire in this fan fic, after my meanness towards her in two of my previous ones. Aww, Nathan called her 'sweetheart'. I know it's OOC for Nathan (e.g. using his ability for pleasure, and not business) and Claire (e.g. she called Nathan 'Daddy'). I just wanted to have fun, and convey warm feelings.**

**Now I feel like having Mexican food. Oh dear, I'm beginning to review my own story. How sad is that?**

**Please review. Reviews give me warm, squishy feelings. :-)**


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